As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts, I am going to be interning with PwC during the summer of 2023 in Pittsburgh in their Audit practice. Because I applied to this internship early and got accepted, I was able to participate in their leadership day where I got the chance to go into their office to tour and meet some Partners in the Pittsburgh office. After I visited and met some people at PwC, I knew that this is where I wanted to be for my internship and potentially after I graduate.

For my class, International Business Issues and The City of London, we toured one of the PwC offices in London and got to talk to Joe Superty in international tax and Frances Mbachu in Mergers and Acquisitions Tax. Before the actual site visit, my group had to give a short presentation on PwC. My part of the presentation was informing my class about who PwC is and what services they provide. I also gave some information about their revenue for the previous year between all services in comparison to the other Big 4 companies. My group and I gave just enough background information for our class to be prepared for the site visit.

This site visit differed in the sense that it was more conversational rather than just a presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed this instead of being taught about their jobs or what tax is. I believe that although it’s interesting and important to learn about tax, it was more beneficial for us. We are all at the point in our lives where we must be making decisions about where we want to end up and what we want to do. As Joe and Frances discussed at the site visit, they never would’ve imagined themselves exactly where they’re at today. We, as college students, feel like we are supposed to have it all figured out but as they reflected in their careers, it has changed in many ways. Some advice they gave us was to put in your best work in your career and opportunities will be opened to you. Hard work is what got them to where they’re at today and is still changing.

After the discussion, we received a tour of the office in London. We saw their meeting room where the chairmen gather for dinner events with an amazing view of London and their many famous attractions like the London Eye, Shard, St Paul’s cathedral, Pall Mall, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben. We then were able to go downstairs and see their café where their employees can receive a discount to eat for their lunch. After seeing the café, we were taken to see their tech room and all the workspaces they have for the employees to come in and work. Because they are operating in a hybrid model, they don’t have assigned desks and instead sit wherever is available. PwC is so ahead of the game that they have a map of all available seats that updates as someone comes and goes by sensing their body temperature. The entirety of the tour lasted for about an hour and a half, so it goes without saying that their office was massive. They have a total of 9 floors used for all different purposes. Their office in London was at least 4 times bigger than Pittsburgh’s office with some similarities and differences. The main similarities were the desk and phone booths where you must reserve the spaces and won’t have a desk assigned to you. Many companies are moving toward this approach after covid because of the hybrid work structure. Frankly, it makes sense to do this as there would be empty desks when people are working from home. One main difference between the offices was how big the space was, and this is mainly due to the size of the firms between Pittsburgh and London. The other differences that I thought were a nice touch to the London office were the rent of a tech accessory, the dentist and nurses in the office, and the tech support on-site.

After reflecting on this experience, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a site lead at one of the office visits in London, especially PwC.

Stay tuned for my last blog post and reflection on my time in London!